1) See if your server has a RP community presence. I think Cenarian Circle has a website, Moonguard has (at least) a wiki, Wyrmrest Accord has WRA.org

2) Look for events. People usually 'bark' about their events in Gen before they start. Events are a good way to dabble your toes and meet people without a lot of pressure

3) Consider addons. MRP is a popular one that is easy to use; this lets you write up a physical description of your character and lets people know you're new to roleplaying and are looking for contact.

4) Don't be afraid to RP with npcs or yourself. Having a non combat pet out and interacting with it (or an npc) is a great way to say 'I'm a roleplayer! Come talk to me!'

5) Don't get discouraged. People will ignore you to RP with their friends. People will say 'lol stupid rper' or otherwise grief you. You'll sit there for hours talking to yourself and feel like a dummy. And that's OK. Be persistent. Eventually, a group or a person will say 'WOW. This person is great. I want to play with them!'

I'm still confused.. lol. But I got a bit of it. What's mrp and where do I get it? And what do interacting with the ncp? you mean like petting and cuddling?.... I'm really sorry that I am asking so much. I'll try not being discouraged.

MRP is 'MyRoleplay'. If you go to wowinterface, you can find download and installation instructions there.

It sounds like you're new to roleplay in general, so if I'm saying things you already know, I apologize- but something I find useful is to do my gameplay in character. How does my character respond to quests? How do they feel about the current state of affairs politically? Religiously? Are they shy, or outgoing and gregarious?

To give some examples, my warrior, Rychtier, is a 'Reluctant Hero'. He's a good guy that wants to live in peace with his partner and tinker with jewelery. His partner is a member of the Cenarian Circle and got called out to Pandaria. Rych found himself drawn into the fighting there.

An NPC asks him to do something (quest) and he sighs, but listens to what they have to say. Sometimes he argues and says 'Sorry, but you're not offering me enough money to do this'. Of course, the NPC doesn't answer, but sometimes I pretend they do. It's a one sided conversation, to be sure, but it often draws more people in. 'What did he say? Did he give you a better rate?' 'No, the bugger's too tight with his silvers, but he's in dire straits, so I'll go check out his bugaboo problem anyway.'

/shrug It works for me, and I am on a high population RP server. I find my gameplay much more enjoyable, even if I'm playing with myself. I felt really silly at first, then I began feeling more immersed into the gameplay and realized I was having a great time... far more than just whipping through the questlines.

MRP is short for MyRolePlay, an addon that lets you display your character's information to other people who also have the addon installed. You can set basically anything you want to on it, from your character's physical description (eyes, height, age, etc.) to their background (although you don't want to give away EVERYTHING - you'd want to share just bits and pieces that might be public knowledge). You can get it, as well as most addons, from Curse.com.

Don't be confused or intimidated just because you haven't roleplayed before; everyone has to start somewhere. There is no right or wrong way to roleplay a character. Some characters may be a little more ordinary (John Smith, the human warrior, is probably not going to stand out much), but others may strain belief almost completely (Alianna, the half-demon half-Na'ru shapeshifting mage who's more powerful than Jaina Proudmoore and all the Dragon Aspects put together is going to get weird looks from pretty much everyone). These are extremes, and most characters will fall somewhere in between the two.

Lose yourself in the game. Don't be concerned with questing and levelling as fast as possible; take time to notice details, thoughts, emotions, things that your character does and says and thinks and feels, instead of what YOU notice. (A good way to help with this is to zoom your camera all the way in to first person view). Walking is the preferred method of travel, until you get mounts, and even then suddenly calling down an enormous dragon in the middle of a city is going to attract some attention.

Roleplaying should be a natural thing. As time goes by and your character develops, he or she will seem more real, and it will take you less time to develop plots and storylines, and it will seem less like a scripted screenplay and more like organic storytelling. She may start out as a dwarf paladin who has sworn to eradicate the Horde and all it stands for, but maybe a kind-hearted Tauren will save her life in the Barrens and change her mind completely. Or maybe he's a blood elf warlock who has somehow overcome his addiction to fel energy but has incurred a debt to a demon so great that he is forced to do their bidding instead of the other way around. Like I said, there's no real wrong way to roleplay, but the more you do it, and the more often you do it, the better you'll get at it and the more people will want to interact with you and add your roleplay to theirs. Lots of times peoples' descriptions in MRP will say "walk-up RP encouraged", and these are the people you should seek out.

Finally, if you are just starting out, you'll want to look for RP in established places instead of just anywhere you happen to wander. Look for the Pig & Whistle Tavern in Old Town in Stormwind. (Depending on your server, Goldshire can be a fairly fun place for beginners, or a nightmare of thinly-veiled softcore porn - tread carefully). I'm not really sure where to find Horde RP, sorry; almost all my toons are Alliance. And like enveri mentioned, look for server communities outside of the game. Lots of times, entire plotlines and stories are done completely offline.

Most importantly, though, don't let anyone else ruin your fun. If someone griefs your RP, report them. If they godmod (i.e. act for your character, say, a duel in which they cannot possibly lose, or overrule a perfectly valid reaction to an event or action), ignore them. And if they have fun with you and you enjoy how the RP went, friend them and RP with them again. Who knows? You might start a revolution - or get caught up in one. Have fun!

Walking around major cities in WoW can help you see RP. The quality varies, but you can see how it's done. I know wyrmrest horde side has RP in the pandaria shrine sometimes, the taverns in orgrimmar, and all over silvermoon. (The quantity in silvermoon leads to a wide range of quality. Some of it is good but some is a little completely insane.)

Alliance side uhmm there was an in character market in darnassus I recall going to once, and I think people RP in stormwind somewhere. (Sorry, I'm pretty much 99% horde these days)

Other servers have different rp hubs, but maybe walking around some to see what people are usually talking about might help? But yes, MRP can let people know you're interested in RP.

The quantity in silvermoon leads to a wide range of quality. Some of it is good but some is a little completely insane.

I play mostly on Kirin Tor, which has a handful of RP guilds and some RP one can stumble across, in addition to scheduled events. (Most players don't stay IC full-time -- I certainly don't -- but I've wandered into RP scenes from time to time, reacting to the "overheard" conversation completely IC and doing my best to engage.)

Still, there was that one time when I logged on to a (now-deleted) banker alt who hung out in the Bazaar in Silvermoon (at the time, shortest walk between AH and mailbox, didn't have the distracting traffic of some other cities, and hand a bank conveniently close), to find a scene involving what appeared to be He-Man and the Christmas Elves going on just south of the AH. (It was a blond male blood elf, wearing a skimpy leather harness and furry-looking shorts, facing two female blood elves, who were wearing the full winter garb, one in green, one in red. I had no idea where the conversation was going, but I didn't want to stick around to find out.)

To the OP: you may have heard this already, but there are two places to be careful of if you're leery of getting involved in ERP (erotic role-play... which has a tendency to be rather more euphemistic a term than one might like) with total strangers. Goldshire, where, as the saying goes, the streets are paved with rubber, if you're Alliance; Horde-side, while SMC has plenty of non-erotic RP going on, the inns there -- along with other places where you might be able to find a bit of seclusion -- can get a little... sticky.

Yes, and then there was a time I watched a mage get drunk and pee on a lamp post..uhm no really. The characters nearby reacted with either shock or amusement. If I get bored I go to silvermoon and read myroleplay profiles and mention some of the worst things to friends.

ERP is reportable if you see it happening in your chat box. You should never see emotes for it or see it in say...Goldshire has a reputation, particularly on moon guard where if I recall the majority of the goldshire population doesn't even play regularly on moon guard? They're just there for the porn. I never see anything bad in Silvermoon on my server, but I don't go into buildings usually...and I'll freely admit I hardly spend time there. Even less now that crz has turned the yell into a chat box. (People are just jerks...and some of them apparently need their internet access taken away until they learn how to behave around other people.)

But if you see two people off alone together..they aren't necessarily involved in ERP. My characters wander off with friends, lovers, and spouses for private chat or just to sit somewhere quiet and I don't erp at all. If you're unsure about intruding on a private conversation but want to come up and say hello you can send a tell. MOSt people won't eat your soul for that I think....